Discoveries
by TVfan
Summary: The "Resistance" begins constructing a new base, and in the process, various facts about the Tripredicus Council's activities are discovered.
1. Chapter 1

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place immediately after "Rude Homecoming".

Discoveries

By TVfan

**Resistance 'Safe House'**

Optimus stood with Rhinox and the Resistance leader, Queen, to begin discussing the next major plan of action that needed to be taken.

"You're certain you can undo whatever the Tripredicus Council has done to us?" Queen questioned, somewhat forcefully.

"Fairly certain," Rhinox answered, "All we need to do is gather some basic diagnostic equipment. That should be able to figure out why you can't transform."

"And how do you suppose to power such devices?" Queen demanded, "We can't hack into the power network without the Tripredicus Council finding us, and even if we could do that, they have drones that patrol these sublevels. They'd find us before you would be able to finish. That's why we move from safe house to safe house. It prevents them from finding us."

"Don't you have any ability to hold one position?" Optimus asked.

"For a short while," Queen answered, "but they'd only cut us off from supplies, and we'd have to surrender after awhile."

"We're going to need a base that we can hold permanently," Optimus said firmly, "what do you do if one of your operatives gets damaged that his own body can't repair on its own? At least not easily?"

"We generally avoid such situations," Queen answered, "Hit and run attacks, and so forth. That way we inflict maximum damage with minimum risk."

Both Optimus and Rhinox sighed heavily.

"Is there any place where the Tripredicus Council won't look, or aren't able to look?" Rhinox asked after a few moments.

Queen thought for a moment an then sighed, "the only place that I could think of would be underground, and I'm not referring to these basement levels, but to down until we reach the floor of Cybertron, below our kind's buildings and their basements, and dig out some kind of bunker."

"Then that will be an objective," Optimus stated plainly, "We dig out ourselves a permanent base. Dealing with the power supply necessary to power the devices is a secondary concern."

"Can your followers do that easily?" Queen questioned, "Dig, I mean."

"Some can do that very well through their beast modes, and others will have to manufacture tools to do so, but yes we can," Optimus said, "It should all be very easy."

"And now we have the fate of your prisoners to discuss," Queen spoke in a firm voice, indicating that she wasn't going to allow the Maximal commander to avoid the topic.

"I'd prefer to keep them in their current state," Optimus answered, "Several of them are extremely dangerous, and a few of them are also fanatically loyal to Megatron."

"We need all the troops we can muster to defeat the Tripredicus Council," Queen answered, "and perhaps their 'beast modes' can dig very well. As for Megatron, he can remain a prisoner. The rest will follow me."

"You're certain of that?" Rhinox asked, "Megatron spent most of the Beast Wars looking over his shoulder to make sure they wouldn't turn on him."

"I am the legitimate leader of the Predicons," Queen answered, "they will accept that you won the Beast Wars and now we're fighting together against a much more dangerous foe."

"Legitimate, maybe," Optimus answered, "that doesn't mean that they won't listen to you."

"Then you can keep any and all who refuse to listen," Queen said firmly, "but I'm not about to trust a ragtag group of Maximals to defeat the Tripredicus Council."

Optimus glanced Rhinox and sighed.

"Very well," Optimus sighed, "You may question the Predicons that we captured and see which ones are loyal to Megatron."

"Thank you," Queen answered trying to sound polite.

Queen the very deliberately walked up to the line up of restrained Predicons that had been defeated in the Beast Wars. They were lined up against a wall and under guard by the Maximals on Optimus's side.

"Come to free me have you?" Megatron questioned as she approached.

"Stuff it, traitor," Queen growled, "attention Predicons of Megatron, I am Queen. Leader of the Resistance on Cybertron against the plans of the Tripredicus Council. Megatron is entirely the reason you are in the situation you are in."

"How dare you accuse the royalty!" Inferno roared from his position.

"If anyone here is 'royalty' it is me," Queen answered, "My name shows it."

She then paused for a moment while Optimus and Rhinox came to stand behind her.

"I have worked out a agreement with Optimus Primal, the Maximal commander, and his aide, Rhinox, that could allow your freedom," Queen continued, "with the exception of Megatron who will be tried for treason when this is all over."

"You'll free us?" Terrorsaur asked.

"If you decide to follow me, and allow Megatron to suffer his fate," Queen answered, "If not, you will remain as prisoners of the Maximals for as long as they wish to hold you."

"I will serve you," Spine spoke up as he stepped forward, "I have no wish of being imprisoned."

That brought Jawbreaker forward, and he kneeled before Queen. Stingfin quickly joined him. Terrorsaur took awhile to think it over, but eventually kneeled before Queen as well. Nightwing and Inferno, however, refused to do so.

"I refuse to serve anyone who allows a traitor to the Vok to live," Nightwing vowed.

Queen sighed, remembering what the Maximals had told her about the end of the Beast Wars and the battles involved against the alien Vok.

"Megatron is the true queen! And you will burn for not serving him," Inferno spoke.

Queen looked at Inferno, then at Megatron, and snickered. Megatron only groaned.

"First Waspinator deserts at the end of the Beast Wars and now you all follow the fool," Megatron grumbled, "It'll be a miracle if you all survive."

"It's a miracle you survived, considering your stupid plans," Queen growled back and backhanded Megatron, "Now shut up."

The freed Predicons soon gathered around Queen to wait for instructions.

"What is our mission?" Spine asked.

"Our mission is to dig into the dirt and 'earth' below Cybertron's basement level," Queen told him, "And you will all keep digging until we've dug out a new base to use."

"At once," Terrorsaur answered.

**Hours Later**

It took time for them to cut and manufacture shovels out of the pipes and pieces of the wall so of various parts of Cybertron's basement levels, but once they did, a spiraling tunnel began to take shape in the center of the safe house area. Most of it was being piled to a side, as Rattrap had come up with an idea to create a trap door for the group to put over their new 'base' when it was all dug out. Meanwhile, the fact that all the work had to be done to construct the base, not everything was calm.

"This whole thing about letting' the Preds go doesn't sit right with me, big bot," Cheetor commented to the Maximal commander.

"It doesn't sit right with me either, Cheetor," Optimus told the transmetal two cheetah, "but we have no choice. I'm not about to put myself under Queen's command and Queen won't put herself under my command. Right now, we need to work together to do things, and she's made it clear that she wouldn't compromise her position on the issue. She wanted any of the Predicons that served Megatron that would swear allegiance to her to do so."

"I know," Cheetor sighed, "but many of these guys were bad news in the Beast Wars. Dinobot and Rapther took heavy damage when they captured Terrorsaur, although Dinobot's was mostly from Scorpinok, but still… they're dangerous. And you have to know that Queen will turn on us the instant the Tripredicus Council is defeated, just like Megatron would."

"It's a risk, but one we have to take," Optimus sighed, "Hopefully the damage that has been done will leave enough work for everyone that Queen won't think to start a fight."

"I hope you're right, big bot," Cheetor told him.

Optimus didn't have time to answer as a sudden cracking noise followed by a terrified scream erupted from the bots digging the tunnel. A pillar of dust soon also rose into the air, and the sound of crashing echoed up to Optimus, Cheetor, and all the other bots who were either guarding the position or observing the digging.

"What in the name of the pit was that?" came Dinobot's growling question, "I heard screaming all the way out in the tunnels."

Others came quickly running to the sight of the noise soon after.

"What's going on?" Queen demanded as she approached.

"Something happened with the digging teams," Optimus answered as he began to make his way down the spiraling tunnel that had been dug so far, and was immensely thankful there was enough room for the tunnel to be dug wide enough so that he could use it, "I'm going down there to find out what."

Optimus and Queen then slowly began their descent toward the sound of the screams, and it did not take them long to figure out what was the cause of them. The tunnelers had hit the roof of a cave, and it wouldn't support their weight. As a result, they had all fallen to the floor of the cave.

"Are you okay?" Optimus called down urgently, hoping no one was injured.

He heard only a groan, and in response, activated his jet boosters and slowly lowered himself to the floor of the cave. He landed next to Rattrap who was trying gather himself back together.

"Are you all okay?" Optimus asked again to the group of fallen transformers.

"Peachy," Rattrap groaned as the group managed to get back to his feet.

The transmetal rat then took his robot mode to look around and gather his surroundings.

"Holy… this is a cave!" Rattrap gasped, astonished by the sight, "Cybertron doesn't have caves!"

"Apparently it does," Snowstalker commented as she got to her feet.

"But then how did it get here?" Rattrap asked, "Cybertron's been a mechanized planet ever since the beginning. How could a cave form?"

"It could be possible that Cybertron was in fact an 'organic' planet before the Matrix created the Cybertron as we know it," Rhinox commented, "No one has come down fare enough to gather any evidence of it."

"So this is ancient history? Going back even before the Decepticons and the Autobots?" Runner asked.

"Has to be," Rhinox answered, "there is no other logical explanation."

"Whatever the explanation," Queen commented as she jumped down into the cave, "this does reduce the work we have to do. The 'base' part of our base already exists. Now we can build the trap door to hide it."

"Just one problem with that," Rattrap commented, "How the hell are to get back up to the top there? We kinda fell into the cave, not came in through the side wall!"

"We have flyers," Queen shrugged it off.

"Wouldn't be enough," Rhinox told her, "We'll either need to construct a staircase or a ladder leading to the spiral ramp we've already dug out."

Optimus nodded, "If we rely only on our flyers it would be easy for the Tripredicus Council to trap us down here by focusing on them. At least with a staircase, we can all counter attack."

"Very well," Queen responded, "So what do you plan to do?"

"Having the flyers scavenge metal parts and pieces we could easily jerry-rig a staircase," Repair commented, "and we can even use parts of the cave for supports. It'll take time, but it should work."

"Then get busy," Queen ordered, "We must have the trap door finished before the Tripredicus Council finds out where our present 'safe house' is and thus, our 'base'."

"At once," Grease answered.

**Tripredicus Council Chambers**

"I believe it's safe to assume that Primal's group have found the Resistance," General Seaclamp sighed, "There is no sign of them on the surface."

"Have our tunnel drones found the Resistance, yet?" General Cicadacon questioned, "Whether or not Primal is with them or not is irrelevant. If we catch the Resistance first, Primal and his group will be lost without information, and eventually they will land in our lap."

"Not yet," General Seaclamp grumbled in a frustrated voice, "the Resistance leader has kept them on the move so much that we've never been able to figure out where they're operating from, just where they were last."

"What is the status of Vile and Curser?" General Ramhorn questioned, "We will need all of our available transformers to deal with them."

"They still need time in the CR chambers," General Cicadacon answered, "besides, we can't attack if we don't know where they are."

The others nodded.

"It might still be wise to try and figure out what Primal will do," General Seaclamp commented, "that way we can learn how some of their transformers have had their armor advanced beyond the standard level."

"What will he do?" General Ramhorn asked, "None of us have ever faced Primal. The only one who has that we have, we can not risk activating."

"He'll probably seek information about what happened while he was away," General Ramhorn commented, "other then that, I don't think we can really guess anything other then directly attacking us."

"A Maximal would be that aggressive?" General Cicadacon asked, "I highly doubt that."

"He might if the Resistance leaves him no choice," General Ramhorn told him, "they do not know our plans, at least not entirely. He might attack us only to try and learn of our plans, and I'm certain the resistance will urge that he attack us directly."

"We will double our strength around our headquarters here," General Seaclamp spoke, "and send some groups out to scout out the rest of Cybertron."

"We should keep our drilling drones searching through the underground for the Resistance safe houses," General Cicadacon spoke, "Otherwise, they'll just hold out down there."

General Ramhorn nodded in agreement.

**Tunnels under Cybertron**

Dinobot stood silently on guard in one of he tunnels around the safe house waiting for an indication that the new 'base' was ready and that they could attack the Tripredicus Council. He heard a great deal of rumbling and rummaging as the work crews were busy with whatever they were working on in the safe house. He stood quietly for a few moments and listened quietly the sounds of the work going on in the safe house.

He was soon distracted by a different rumbling, which was soon added by the visible vibration of the pipes and wires running along the top of the tunnel. Then all of a sudden, the wall in front of him suddenly collapsed as a massive object moved through it. It was a cylindrical object with what looked like a drill on the front of it. Once it was in the tunnel it seemed to detect and follow the transmetal two raptor. It was clearly another Tripredicus Council drone.

"Maximal signature detected," the drone announced in a robotic voice.

The drone then produced several laser cannons from inside its drill piece and began firing at Dinobot. Dinobot quickly dove out of the line of fire, only to feel the vibrations of another drilling drone approaching in his direction.

"Dinobot to Optimus," Dinobot spoke into his radio as he destroyed the first drilling drone with his own optics lasers.

"Optimus here," came the Maximal commander's answer, "What is it?"

"What is the status of the 'trap door'?" Dinobot questioned as a second drill drone came through the wall of the tunnel and began firing on Dinobot.

"We're about done, why do you ask?" Optimus asked as Dinobot slashed the drill part off of the second drone.

Dinobot could now hear many drill drones coming. He was confident that he could beat them, but he didn't know how long it would take them to radio for help, and he was certain he couldn't defeat all of the Tripredicus Council's soldiers on his own.

"I have been found," Dinobot answered simply as another drill drone came through the wall and began firing on him, "They are some kind of cylindrical drilling robot."

"Tunnelers!" came Queen's voice over the radio, "Hold them off now! We're almost ready!"

"We're close to being ready, Dinobot," Optimus spoke, "Hold on for awhile and then pull back quickly to entrance. Make sure they don't see you enter the new underground base."

"Understood," Dinobot answered as he blasted another 'tunneler' with his optics laser.

Two more suddenly appeared, and the male raptor quickly dove away as they began firing on him.

Meanwhile, in the cave, Optimus gave a frustrated sigh. He had hopped that they would be able to complete the trap door before they could be attacked by anyone. Especially since they would need to complete a lot of work just to get everything working that would be needed in the long run.

"This is why we move around," Queen answered, "They have a habit of finding us and forcing us into defensive battles."

"And as a result of constant movement, you lack any ability to repair yourselves," Optimus answered, "Which means that unless you've left your wounded to die, you can't repair yourselves. That generally means you can't attack the Tripredicus Council in a position that would be important to them."

Queen was silent. Optimus was right. The resistance had seen some rather great battles in the beginning, but she had no way to repair damaged bots, and those that weren't captured by the drones or Tripredicus followers were killed when they struck again. She did want to argue that she did what had to be done, but she sensed that Optimus had her cornered. Her forces were down so low that they couldn't do much more then run. Optimus's argument had brought that issue to the front.

"Be thankful that Dinobot is Cybertron's bravest warrior," Queen then spoke, "Regardless of which faction he follows."

It was then that Rattrap and Repair came down the makeshift staircase that lead up and out of the cave.

"We got the mechanism that will operate the trap door done," Rattrap reported, "Now, could you explain what is going on?"

"Tunneling drones have run into Dinobot," Optimus reported, "I need you to send a radio message to our sentries and tell them to fall back to the trap door as quickly as possible."

"What about Dinobot?" Repair asked.

"Dinobot will hold them off until everyone is safely in the base and we can begin to try and figure out what to do next," Optimus told him.

The tunnelers had only one thing in their favor, as Dinobot sliced another of them in half with his talons. That advantage was numbers. Nearly a dozen of them had either followed the first tunnelers that had arrived, or came though the walls of the tunnel on their own. Their lasers were only as strong as a standard laser weapon, many of which were scaled down versions of weapons used in the Great War. His transmetal two armor was far stronger then them, an he could afford to take a hit or two, but he knew that through sheer weight of numbers, hey could eventually overwhelm him.

He turned his head and blasted another of them with his optics laser and growled as he heard and felt the vibrations of more tunnelers approaching. This was another thing he hated about fighting underground. There was no possible way he could try and figure out how many opponents he was facing. Above ground, he'd at least have a clearer line of sight. Down the tunnels he would have to check every previous entry hole and hope that there was only one tunneled coming in it. The fact that the industrial muck and debris hid the tunneler's scent did not help either.

It was then that his radio came to life again.

"Okay, Dinobot, begin falling back to the trapdoor," came Optimus's voice, "It's time we see how well it works."

"On my way," Dinobot answered, and began moving through the tunnels toward the trap door, leaving trail that the tunnelers would be sure to follow to the room the door was in.

He arrived at the tunnel entrance to find Rattrap waiting with the door handle in his hand.

"How far behind you are they?" Rattrap asked.

"Far enough to know I came into this room," Dinobot answered, "but not close enough to know about the trap door."

"Good," Rattrap answered, as he shut the door over them and they made their decent into the new Maximal base.

Above them, the tunnelers arrived to find an empty room. There were two passageways that lead out of the room, but there was no obvious sign that their target had left the room. They thus assumed that their prey had moved on and was well ahead of them. The tunnelers then resumed a basic search routine.

**Tripredicus Council Chambers**

General Seaclamp slammed his fist down as he saw the tunnelers go into their search routine. It indicated to him that their target had escaped.

"Blast," General Seaclamp growled, "and that was one of the more advanced transformers, and we almost had him."

"Had him?" General Cicadacon grumbled, "He destroyed half the tunnelers in that patrol while only sustaining minimal damage. His own internal repair units should be able to handle the damage they inflicted on him."

"But he didn't stand and fight," General Seaclamp argued, "He pulled back. They had to have done something right."

"More then likely, he retreated to avoid risking taking any real damage," General Ramhorn spoke up, "Our advantage is that of numbers. The victory we won in tonight's battle was that the tunnelers accentually found one of our potential targets. That is certainly a step up from the Resistance constantly avoiding them."

"It is a step up, yes," General Seaclamp sighed, "How much of a step is debatable."

"Have more tunnelers patrol that general region," General Ramhorn ordered, "and tell some of our followers to patch themselves in to their feed video feed. That ought to boost our reaction time to when we find one of Optimus's followers."

The others quickly agreed and nodded.

**Underground Base**

The Maximals gathered around Optimus in a crowded half circle the resistance members formed the other half of the circle around Queen. The purpose of this meeting was to announce the coming plans of what needed to happen next.

"While finding these caves and building a trap door and staircase were both a stroke of luck and an excellent display of teamwork, Maximals," Optimus spoke in a confident voice, "now comes the tough work."

"You promised us to find out why we either can not transform or even have an alternate mode anymore," Queen spoke up, loud enough so that the others could hear her.

"And to keep the scanning equipment working, we will need a source of power to operate from," Optimus spoke, "In addition to all of that, we will require basic computers and the equipment necessary for CR chambers. This is going to require a lot of work, and I will need you all to split into teams. Each team will be responsible for gathering what we need to get this base functioning."

"One member of the resistance will escort your teams to their respective targets and will identify the type of drones you encounter," Queen added.

"Dinobot, Rapther, Rattrap, and Mammoth," Optimus spoke, "You are to go to the shipyards. We're going to need several of their battery units to power the devices we need."

"Wired will go with you," Queen spoke.

"Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, Depthcharge, and Stagstripe," Optimus continued, "You will head toward the repair centers and gather up the scanning equipment that will be needed to make sure we can adequately diagnose what is wrong with Queen and the other resistance members."

"Repair and Grease will escort you," Queen told them.

"Cheetor, Squeak, Airazor, and Cybershark," Optimus continued, "You are to head for a different ship assembly point and try and see if you can scavenge the parts to build a CR chamber or two. Be warned, you may have to take them apart and make multiple trips."

"Runner will escort you," Queen spoke.

"We're doing this all at once?" Rattrap asked.

"It should keep the Tripredicus Council off balance," Optimus answered, "Given that their drones have proven completely ineffective and their followers that are transformers haven't been much better then the drones, striking at multiple targets should be able to disorient them."

"What about the rest of us?" Bomb asked.

"The rest of us will be exploring and mapping out our new base," Optimus answered and prepared for an argument.

"Exploring!" Queen erupted, "This dump?"

"Yes" Optimus answered, "according to all 'experts' on Cybertron's geology, a cave should not exist, yet, here we are in a cave."

"Interesting, how does that help us?" Queen demanded.

"Perhaps there are things down here that might be of use," Optimus answered, "Perhaps there is an exit that leads to the surface world we didn't know of before. Perhaps there are chambers that we can use as rooms to recharge in instead of 'sharing' this one massive chamber. We won't know unless we look. At the same time, the rest of us will need to do something while the others acquire the equipment we need."

"And if they require help?" Queen demanded.

"Our radio signals aren't slowed down by he rock/metal," Rhinox spoke up, "Not as sophisticated as one would expected, but we should be able to communicate with each other for a good many miles."

"And you will all go to help if there is trouble?" Queen asked.

"Appropriate reinforcements will be sent as necessary," Optimus promised the Resistance leader, "but they won't be idly waiting for trouble."

**To Be Continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place immediately after "Rude Homecoming".

Discoveries, Chapter 2

By TVfan

**Underground Caves**

Tigerhawk and Optimus slowly walked down a dark portion of the complex of caves that they and the resistance members had found, largely in awe of what they had found. For them, the discovery of a cave on Cybertron was a new frontier that they couldn't help but enjoy exploring.

"It is amazing," Tigerhawk spoke, "A natural formation, much like the caves on Earth."

"On planets where caves form, it's not a surprise to find them looking alike," Optimus replied, "the strange thing is that there are caves on Cybertron. All our history data-tracks and legends say that Cybertron was mechanical from the very beginning."

"Legends can be wrong," Tigerhawk answered, "and history can only go back so far. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. There is beauty in nature, and perhaps finding these caves will show us that we can bring that beauty to the rest of Cybertron."

"Some would not call these caves 'beautiful'," Optimus sighed, "and while I find them scientifically interesting, I can't say they're all that attractive to the optic."

"Natural beauty can be found if one knows where to look," Tigerhawk answered, "and besides, what are we to do once the Tripredicus Council is defeated? Build over the skyscrapers they've build with skyscrapers of our own? I would prefer a park or two."

"That wouldn't be too bad an idea," Optimus smiled.

After what seemed like hours of walking they eventually returned to the main area that served as their link to the outside world. The other teams exploring the cave had also gathered there.

"So, what do we have?" Optimus asked as he and Tigerhawk approached.

"These caves are extensive," Rhinox commented, "It would probably take years of exploration to map how far they go, I've also noted that the cave's ceiling is lined with some strange crystal that reflects light back down. We're essentially lighting our own way, using our own optics, as they're the only light source down here to be reflected by the crystals."

"Interesting," Optimus answered, "Anything else?"

"Nothing militarily interesting about these caves," Queen growled, "There are some other small caverns connected to this one, but other then as a 'quarters', they're useless."

"It helps if it gives us some privacy," Packadex spoke up, "and they could serve as cells for Megatron and the other Predicons that won't follow you."

"He does have a point," Rhinox agreed.

Queen only growled in frustration at that.

"I believe she means there is nothing that can be used as a weapon," Spine spoke in Queen's defense, "short of using the rocks to crush various Tripredicus drones."

"Finding weapons wasn't the purpose for exploring these caverns," Optimus answered, "If you want to look for weapons, Queen, that's fine, but remember, you'll needlessly risk your own life in doing so."

Queen gave a frustrated growl at that. Her forces had been steadily weakened in nearly continuous raids on Tripredicus forces and instillations and she could not afford to take heavy casualties anymore. Her forces were entirely dependent on Primal and his Maximals, which, while it was a frustrating position, she knew she couldn't avoid it.

**Above ground, Old Maximal Starship Yards**

"These were one of several old manufacturing yards where Maximal exploration vessels were built," Wired spoke as Dinobot looked out over a series of cranes, warehouses and other manufacturing equipment stood out prominently, "The Tripredicus Council is probably still using the yards to make warships for their forces."

"No doubt to attack Maximal and Predicon colonies outside this immediate star system," Dinobot growled.

"Where are their guards then?" Rattrap asked, "If this place is important to them, and still in use, shouldn't they have guards of some kind posted?"

"Most of the military drones have been assigned to hunter-seeker duties trying to catch the resistance," Wired answered, "These places are too large for us to take and hold. We will have to move quickly, though as a patrol of drones could come across our raid."

"Rapther and I can deal with any drones that come across us," Dinobot answered confidently, "It will be the responsibility of the rest of you to find the ship batteries and get back to base."

"And right now, that doesn't look like too hard a job," Rattrap smiled confidently, "all we got to do is go through the gate."

"Leave that to me," Mammoth said firmly and took on his beast mode and charged toward the gate.

The large wooly mammoth transformer hit the gates at full speed and easily knocked the thin metal gates down. They went down with a loud bang however, which unnerved Wired.

"We must move quickly," Wired said urgently as they ran toward the now toppled gate, "any nearby drones would have surely heard that!"

Mammoth nodded and retook his robot mode to follow the others. Wired and Rattrap lead the way, and headed towards one of the warehouses.

"They're likely to have their finished batteries in one of the warehouses," Wired spoke as they ran.

Once again, Mammoth used his size to go through the door to the warehouse while the rest slowly followed him in. They found that the warehouse was filled with components for ships computers and other internal equipment.

"How many batteries will we need?" Mammoth asked as he began looking around the warehouse for where one of the batteries would be stored.

"At least two," Rattrap answered, "we can run on one for a long while, but it's always good to have back up or at least a spare."

"We'll also need plenty of wiring to hook everything up," Wired added, "Let's go. The raptors have already decided to act as guards."

While Dinobot and Rapther quietly stood guard, Rattrap, Mammoth, and Wired went through the warehouse searching for ship batteries and for enough wiring to use to make using the batteries possible. It didn't take too long for them to find everything they need and they soon returned to where Dinobot and Rapther were standing. As the two raptors looked back, they saw that the batteries that Mammoth was carrying were to large to fit through the underground entrance that they had originally emerged from.

"We'll need to blast a hole in the street to get those things into the sewers," Rapther commented.

Dinobot gave a frustrated sigh, but nodded, and then lead the group out. As they went, there was no obvious sign of any approaching drones. They then dashed as quickly as they could to the alley that they had earlier ran out from.

**Diagnostic Center**

"Does everything in there still work?" Blackarachnia asked as the second Maximal/Resistance team gathered on the roof of a building across the street from an old Maximal diagnostic center.

"I would think so," Repair answered, "The Tripredicus Council hasn't demolished the building yet, and many of these places were deserted when the Tripredicus Council first took over. The equipment is likely to be dusty, but workable."

"The center also has a service elevator that we can use once we're in to go back down to the sub-basement levels of Cybertron," Grease added.

"That'll make getting out easier," Depthcharge commented, "all this equipment is likely to be fairly heavy and definitely difficult to maneuver."

"All we need to do is go in," Silverbolt spoke and fired two wing missiles toward the windows of the center.

The resulting explosion blew a hole large enough for them to enter.

"That could have been done with a lot more finesse," Blackarachnia told the winged fuzor, "A LOT more."

"This will speed things up," Silverbolt answered, "We'll get spotted just as easily sitting out in the open like this."

"Fine," Blackarachnia sighed as those that could transform took the beast modes.

Blackarachnia quickly webbed out a sling that Silverbolt to carry her and Stagstripe across the open space, while Grease and Repair hopped onto Depthcharge's back. They then quickly made their way over the street and into the diagnostic center. They then quickly made their way into the diagnostic center's interior searching for the equipment that they would need. The first thing they came across was a hover gurney, which was quickly appropriated to carry the equipment they would need.

Outside, Curser was flying a relatively low level patrol after being repaired. He was under orders to keep an eye out for any actions taken by the resistance or Optimus Primal's forces. As he rounded a corner, he found a building that had a large hole in one of its upper floors, and it was a hole that hadn't been there before, that he knew of.

"Curser to Tripredicus Council," Curser gave a fairly straightforward, "I've found a sign of possible resistance activity. I'm going in for further investigation."

Curser then assumed his robot mode and flew into the building in search of his quarry.

The small search group did manage to find various scanning equipment and computers, as well as a few 'med-cabinets' in case some form of cyber-medicine would be needed. The equipment was bulky and heavy and it took them a fair amount of time to load onto the hover-gurney. Now, that weight was weighing them down as they tried to get it to the service elevator.

"Did you hear something?" Stagstripe asked as he and Silverbolt followed Depthcharge as the transmetal manta ray pushed the hover gurney.

Silverbolt raised his head and listened carefully. He could faintly hear the sound of an engine moving through the hallways behind them.

"Something is coming from behind us," he spoke in a voice that betrayed the expectation of a coming fight.

"Stagstripe, dog-boy, and I will hold it off," Blackarachnia spoke authoritatively, "Repair and Grease, can you help Depthcharge get the gurney to the elevator?"

"Queen put us in charge!" Grease answered, in an almost whining manner.

"You have no weapons," Silverbolt commented.

"And I need someone to guide this gurney," Depthcharge answered, "I can't see over or around it."

Both Grease and Repair then gave a defeated groan at that, knowing that they wouldn't get a shot at being in the coming fight. They then continued helping Depthcharge move the gurney, while Blackarachnia, Stagstripe, and Silverbolt took up positions to block the hallway.

It didn't take long for the source of the noise to arrive. It was Curser trying to find what had entered the diagnostic center, and had been following the trail of removed equipment as he went.

"I knew it!" Curser said excitedly, "resistance activity."

"And if it isn't my favorite target on this 'new' Cybertron," Blackarachnia growled back and opened fire on Tripredicus Council enforcer.

The shots knocked Curser off balance and sent him tumbling into a wall. Silverbolt then added his own feather missiles to Blackarachnia's machine gun bullets and blew a hole in the wall and sent part of the ceiling collapsing onto Curser.

"My turn!" Curser yelled as he blasted out of the rubble and began firing wildly at the two Maximals and Predicon.

The fire was wild, but it forced Curser's targets to duck for any available cover, which in a hallway, was virtually none. Curser merely kept firing.

"We gotta get him out of here," Blackarachnia growled.

"I'm open to suggestions," Silverbolt answered as he fired a pair of missiles at Curser, only to watch the jet dodge them.

"I might be able to knock him out," Stagstripe volunteered as he held up his antler shaped swords, "that is, if some one could draw his fire so I could get close."

"That'd take too long," Blackarachnia growled as she returned to her beast mode, "follow me down the hallway, but make sure that he does take some fire. We'll lead him into a trap and my cybervenom will take him down quick and easy."

Blackarachnia then quickly began heading down the hallway with Silverbolt and Stagstripe laying down cover fire behind her. Their fire kept Curser's fire fairly inaccurate as they followed the transmetal two spider down the hallway. After a while, they saw what looked like Blackarachnia's cyber webbing laying across the floor, and they quickly leaped over it.

Curser, however, didn't notice it and charged at full speed to try and catch the two Maximals in front of him. Just as he got to where Blackarachnia had laid down her trap, it was pulled up in front of the Tripredicus Council enforcer and he flew straight into the web. Curser was quickly wrapped up in the web and crashed to the ground below them. Blackarachnia then dropped from the ceiling and landed on Curser's back.

"You're lucky our mission isn't to do battle," Blackarachnia said triumphantly, "otherwise you'd be destroyed. You'll have to settle for being paralyzed for awhile."

Blackarachnia then sank her fangs into the side of Curser's head, injecting a fairly large dose of cybervenom. Silverbolt and Stagstripe were watching her as she returned to her robot mode.

"He'll be offline for awhile," Blackarachnia said with a smile, "We'd best get back to the others."

"Sure," Silverbolt and Stagstripe answered.

**Tripredicus Council Chambers**

"What is Primal up to?" General Seaclamp growled as a stream of reports flashed across a screen in front of him, "a drone patrol has come across a warehouse in one of our manufacturing areas and found the gate knocked in and two battery units and several other power components stolen from a warehouse. And Curser reported finding 'resistance' activity in an old Maximal diagnostic center, and we've yet to receive a follow-up report from him."

"You're sure that it is Primal that is behind this?" General Cicadacon asked, "he might not have found the resistance, and if that is the case, we have two sets of enemies to chase."

"No, Primal had to have found the resistance by now," General Seaclamp told him, "we would have found him and his crew by now if they hadn't. This has to be a combined operation."

There was a pause for a moment or two before Seaclamp continued speaking.

"And even if they hadn't linked up, this has to be Primal's doing," General Seaclamp said in a frustrated voice, "the resistance has never attacked an instillation to take something. They've only committed acts of sabotage and blowing up our instillations."

"It is of no concern WHO is behind these activities," General Ramhorn cut in, "We must figure out why they're doing this."

"That's the problem," General Seaclamp growled, "there is nothing to be gained by these actions. I would guess that they're trying to establish some sort of 'base' to operate out of, considering that they took batteries, but there is no place on Cybertron that our drones do not patrol and can be supported by enforcers. They'd forced out of their base before they'd even complete it."

"What could they be using the batteries for?" General Cicadacon questioned, "It could be possible they could turn the batteries into a bomb."

"Then why break into a diagnostic center?" General Seaclamp retorted, "they likely took equipment needed to build CR chambers from there, which they would need the batteries to power."

General Cicadacon then nodded at that assumption, as it seemed the most logical decision.

"So, what do we do?" General Cicadacon then asked.

"Increase the number of tunneler drone patrols and increase our surface patrols," General Ramhorn answered, "If they're building a base, we must find it and destroy it before they get it up and running."

**Elsewhere**

"This could be problematic," Runner spoke from behind a thick window of a building across a street from an old Predicon shipyard that was known for building warships of the same class as Megatron's ship, the Darkside.

"What is it?" Cheetor asked as he approached, "It's not something that would slow us down would it? We took long enough getting here."

"Look for yourself," Runner answered.

Cheetor and the other Maximals approached and looked out the window that Runner was standing near. What they saw made each of them look slightly more concerned then they had been a few moments before. Unlike the other sites where no one had reported running into guards as they entered, this shipyard was. There were two tank drones visible outside the main gate and Cheetor's audio sensors could hear the movement of more inside. There were also two drones that resembled the Tripredicus enforcer, Curser, circling over the plant.

"This one is guarded," Squeak commented nervously.

"We can take the drones," Cheetor said confidently, "they ain't that tough."

"They aren't, but individual strength was never the intention the Tripredicus Council had in mind for their drones," Runner informed them, "after all, if one transformer is assaulted by one thousand, eventually that one transformer will fall."

Runner then looked out at the present drones guarding the facility and gave a heavy sigh.

"And while I'm sure that as a team we could defeat these drones," Runner then continued, "by the time we'd beaten them, reinforcing drones and possibly transformers loyal to the Tripredicus Council will have been called in. And it will take us multiple trips to get the parts for a CR chamber back to the base. We can not afford to get into an all out battle."

"He's right," Airazor sighed, "Is there another way in? One that avoids any contact with the drones?"

"There might be," Runner answered her, "but the tunnels under the facility may not go into the warehouses where the equipment we need is stored."

Cheetor looked out the window and noticed something just beyond the walls of the shipyard.

"What about the ships they're building?" Cheetor asked curiously.

"What?" Cybershark asked the transmetal two cheetah like he'd grown another head.

"Yeah," Cheetor answered, "We sneak in underground, steal one of the ships they've just completed, and work together to move a fully functional CR chamber back to the base."

"We can't just crash the ship into the base," Airazor told him.

"Not into the base, but into the ground closer to the base," Cheetor said, "as you said, we'd be bound to get caught if we tried to either blast our way in or sneak in and make multiple trips for the parts. This way we'd get the completed CR chamber and we'd rapidly get a head start on any dopes following the Tripredicus Council."

"That might work," Runner commented, "It'll take three to carry a completed CR chamber, but it'd make the getting in and getting out a lot easier."

"Can you get us there though?" Cybershark asked.

"Now's as good a time as any to find out," Runner answered with a sigh.

**Underground**

Dinobot's group was nearly halfway back to the base when there came a sudden rumbling from the walls around them. This rumbling put them all on alert, which paid off as four tunneler drones suddenly came through the wall on their right side.

"Tunnelers!" Wired jumped up in surprise, nearly dropping the box he was carrying.

Dinobot turned from his position in front and slashed at the closest tunneler with his talons, slicing the massive drone in half as he did so. Rapther hit another with a barrage of rocket fire, blasting it to pieces. The remaining two drones tried to fire on Rattrap and Wired, the only two transformers directly in their line of fire.

Both Wired and Rattrap dove backward, forgetting about the boxes they were carrying and got behind Mammoth who was still carrying the batteries. Both tunnelers then began to turn to follow the two smaller transformers.

"Come on, Chopperface," Rattrap said urgently as he pulled out is transmetal tail sword and sliced off the barrel of the closest tunneler's blasters, "do something."

Dinobot hit the other tunneler with his optics laser, destroying it easily. Rapther then dashed around Mammoth to leap onto the top of the last tunneler and then used her tail whip to send an energon charge through the drone offline, rendering it useless. Once that was done, they then began to assess the results of the small battle, if it could be called a battle.

"These four were on a routine patrol," Dinobot commented as he looked at the holes that they had drilled through the wall to enter the tunnel they were in.

"How can you tell?" Wired asked, "They could have been hunting us."

"If they were hunting us, they would have come down the same path we took," Rapther spoke, "You don't roam around randomly when you're hunting something."

"And their roaming ain't that smart either," Rattrap commented as he took a closer look at where the tunnelers appeared, "If they're moving through walls at random, they're weakening the supports that the tunnels provide the surface. If this keeps up, they could cause the buildings above to collapse down onto the tunnels, and could very well make it into the base."

"A risk we'll have to take," Dinobot growled, "We lack the forces to maintain an above ground base. And perhaps our victories over the tunnelers will decimate their numbers that such a 'end game' would be avoided."

"Let's just get back to the base," Mammoth commented, "before more tunnelers show up."

**Predicon Shipyard**

Runner slowly moved a sewer lid aside to find that the underground path had got them in between two completed Predicon warships. There was no sign of any drones in the immediate area, and he quickly crawled out.

"Come on, we have to move quickly," Runner said quietly and then rushed to the closest Predicon warship and opened a small maintenance hatch.

Cheetor and Airazor were quick to follow, and Cybershark and Runner both helped Squeak climb in. Once inside, they closed the hatch and began to crawl toward one of the main hallways.

"Looks like your plan is working," Cybershark commented.

"We'll still need to take off and get the CR chamber safely removed from the med bay," Cheetor answered, "which may be difficult if this thing is anything like the Darkside."

"I can pilot the ship," Runner spoke, "so long as I have one other to help. I doubt we'll need a full bridge crew to fly about a mile through the air and then deliberately crash."

Airazor nodded, "Squeak can help you there. We'll head to the med bay."

Squeak and Runner nodded and began to head for the med bay while Cheetor, Airazor, and Cybershark turned to head for the med bay. Cheetor and his group arrived at the cramped med bay fairly quickly, and Cheetor's earlier prediction was proven right. The CR tanks were packed together and would be difficult for any of them to get at. There were a set of tools sitting nearby, which meant that work had to have only recently been completed, but they wouldn't make it easy.

"We'd best get to work," Cheetor said with a sigh.

Runner and Squeak, meanwhile, found the bridge quiet and dark. Squeak quickly turned the lights on and they then approached the main controls.

"Starting engines," Runner spoke aloud as he began pressing several keys.

"Shutting down automated take off system and switching to manual control," Squeak added.

The sound of the engines coming to life reverberated throughout the ship, and soon Runner typed in a series of keys that began to lift the warship into the air. Squeak kept frantically busy making sure the ship's computer didn't start an automated take off sequence, which all Cybertronian ships were designed to do. This allowed Runner to keep the ship at rooftop level. The sound of laser blasts hitting the hull echoed as they began to fly away from the shipyard.

"How are things going back there?" Runner asked over the radio.

"We've got one of the CR tanks disconnected from the floor and ready to be removed from the wall," came Cheetor's voice in response, "we'll take it off of the wall after we've landed."

"Okay," Runner sighed, "we're going to be accelerating to 'crash speed' soon, so brace for impact."

"Right," Cheetor's voice answered and then the radio went quiet for the moment as Runner went back to piloting the ship.

In the med bay, Cheetor, Airazor, and Cybershark quickly prepared for a crash landing.

"Be ready, bots," Cheetor spoke somewhat urgently, "We can't let the tank be ripped out of the wall when we 'land'."

The three of them were quickly bracing themselves against the tank, using their own bodies as a means to restrain the large CR tank. They were soon tested as the ship suddenly slowed and the vibrations of the ship going through buildings and eventually the ground at street level passed through every level of the ship. Airazor slipped, but managed to remain close enough to the CR tank that she could prevent it from moving, but only just barely. All of them looked out of it as the ship finally came to a stop.

"I wonder if being in crash landings counts toward my frequent flyer miles?" Cheetor mumbled as he shook the cobwebs out of his head.

"Only as long as you can walk away from it," Cybershark grumbled back as the radio came back on again.

"You guys alright?" Runner asked over the radio.

"Fine," Cheetor answered back, "it was a rough landing, to be sure, but we're fine."

"We've landed," Runner told him, "sensors indicate five tank drones headed in this direction, and there are at least four jet drones circling our position already. You'd better get that CR tank moving before they arrive. We need to be out of here before they have a chance to arrive.

Cybershark only sighed when he heard Runner's answer over the radio and then turned to look at the CR tank.

"Best get to work," Cybershark then sighed.

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

"You found no sign of the resistance members that stole that ship?" General Ramhorn demanded to the image of Vile on a communications screen in front of him.

"Not in the direct area," Vile answered, "but I was able to figure out what they were after."

"We assumed they were after the ship and failed because it crashed," General Seaclamp spoke.

"I originally thought that as well," Vile answered, "but after inspecting the ship, I believe stealing it was a diversion the resistance's part. I believe they were after the ship's CR tanks, as one of them had been removed."

"That would reinforce the idea that Primal is building a base somewhere," General Cicadacon commented, "Taking CR tanks to repair damaged transformers."

That made Generals Ramhorn and Seaclamp growl in a very frustrated manner.

"Your orders, sir?" Vile asked.

"Return to headquarters," General Cicadacon answered, "We are going to have to rethink our campaign and call in more enforcers to deal with this. The tunnelers will deal with the task of finding Primal's base."

**Underground**

"You're certain that the tunneler's patrols could bring the city down on top of us?" Optimus asked as Rattrap finished his section of the report that Dinobot's team had given.

"Yes," Rattrap answered, "They're not following the passageways, they're going through 'em. Eventually they destroy enough of Cybertron's underground that the sewers won't be strong enough to support the buildings above us."

Optimus sighed and looked around him to see the preparations being made to build a base out of the caves that they had found themselves in. The work to set everything up would take awhile, and Optimus sensed that defeating the Tripredicus Council would take longer He couldn't let what little they had done so far be destroyed so easily.

"Well, that's just prime," Optimus growled with some frustration.

**To Be Continued…**


	3. Chapter 3

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place immediately after "Rude Homecoming".

Discoveries, Chapter 3

By TVfan

**Underground Caves**

"I'll admit this, Primal, you've done a fairly decent job of preparing a secret base for us to operate from," Queen commented, as she and Optimus supervised the construction of the new 'Resistance' base against the Tripredicus Council.

"It's all the things that need to be done before we can take any further steps against the Tripredicus Council," Optimus answered, "Which will need to be our next mission."

"Further steps?" Queen asked.

"Finding out what they're planning," Optimus answered, "It'll help us figure out how to stop them."

"They plan to take over Cybertron," Queen answered, "which, technically they've already done. We must fight them for that. Besides, we will need stocks of energon if we're to keep fighting."

"Yes, I know," Optimus sighed, "but they can't be limited to only ruling Cybertron. If they're anything like Megatron, they'll likely move on take over more of the galaxy or find some sort of super weapon that would make our fighting unimportant. We need to find that out for sure so that way we can counter their moves."

"I'd prefer just taking them out," Queen growled, "Forget their plans."

"It's better to fight smarter," Optimus argued, "if we fight a series of 'minor' engagements to gain information or supplies, we're bound to run into some of their forces, and if they are beaten, that will weaken their overall position. Saving us from having to risk maximum losses to take minor positions or risking annihilation attacking strong points."

Queen only growled heavily as she found Optimus's style of warfare to be exceedingly cautious. She respected his ability to put together a base that the Tripredicus Council didn't know of, and she could moderately understand his want to protect any possible wounded Maximals, as these were things that Maximals held as 'virtues'. But they were at war now, and the Tripredicus Council was the enemy. It was unwise, in Queen's opinion to simply nip at the edges. They had to hit hard, hit fast, and hit soon, and the base that had been built would allow them to do just that.

"And if we need to obtain a large supply of energon for 'food' or fuel, mindlessly assaulting Tripredicus instillations is not the way to secure them," Optimus then added as they continued.

"Perhaps we can continue with the small 'divide and conquer' missions then," Queen sighed, knowing the Resistance would need energon stocks to keep fighting, "You and your Maximals can go running after what useless pieces of information you want. My fighters will secure what is truly important."

Optimus could only nod, sensing that he wasn't likely to get the female Predicon to change her mind.

**Tripredicus Council Headquarters**

"Has there been any positive report from the tunnelers?" General Seaclamp asked nervously as the Tripredicus Council met in their primary headquarters area.

"None," General Ramhorn answered, "Wherever they've built this base, they've either hidden it quite well, or the have very successful defenses."

"None of our tunneller patrols have reported losses," General Cicadacon grumbled, "I'd think it's the former. They've hidden it well."

"There has to be some way we can find them without all this work," Seaclamp grumbled, "some sort of scanning system or something."

"We have that sort of technology," Ramhorn reminded him, "It comes standard with all Cybertronian security systems. The problem is the range. We can install the program on the drones, but they would have to get within one hundred yards of the target, and installing the detection gear would force us to remove their communication and homing signal devices."

General Seaclamp growled in frustration. He had expected to be celebrating the destruction Optimus Primal and his Maximals. Instead, they had robbed several facilities needed to build a base, which would mean that their fights with the resistance would become much more serious.

"We can safely assume that Primal has not only linked up with the Resistance, but has taken on a command role," General Cicadacon spoke, "we can also assume that he's establishing a base from which he can attack us."

"We know that!" General Seaclamp yelled in frustration.

"Then you can also guess what Primal's next move will be," General Cicadacon told his frustrated partner.

That actually intrigued both of the other Council members.

"They have a base, yes," General Cicadacon then explained, "but they have no way of easily supplying it. They will have to depend on various Maximal and Predicon supply depots for weapons, ammunition, and above all energon. If they're really brave, they might even raid the depots that we use for our own enforcers or drones."

"You're suggesting we use these places as bait?" General Ramhorn asked.

"Yes, saturate them with hidden drones and an enforcer or two and wait until a small team of Resistance fighters arrives," General Cicadacon smiled, "the Resistance members are then overpowered and brought before us, and we can then interrogate them on the location of their base."

"That might work, if it weren't for the fact that Curser an Vile are both in CR chambers after the latest Resistance activities and most of our other enforcers aren't on this part of Cybertron," General Seaclamp grumbled, "our drones won't do much if Primal sends one of is 'advanced' warriors."

"We may have to recruit the traveler that we found in space," General Ramhorn sighed, "from what he told us when we captured him, he even has experience with both Primal and Megatron's followers."

"Are you sure we can trust him though?" General Cicadacon asked his partner, "Even I'm concerned on his loyalties, given his history."

"We know that Megatron enslaved Rampage to serve him on Earth," General Ramhorn said confidently, "Tarantulus managed to tell us of that before his demise."

"A shame," General Seaclamp sighed, thinking of the transmetal spider, "Tarantulus was one of our best operatives."

"Yes, but we can duplicate what Megatron did with our guest," Ramhorn spoke, "It may be the only thing we can do to provide for us a warrior who can match the Resistance fighters."

**Underground Caves**

Gathering up all of the Maximals and Resistance fighters took a fair while as some where guarding the entrance and others were exploring the area that they were now inhabiting. They then gathered around a crudely readied computer that they had earlier stolen which was currently displaying a map of the local area that had been mapped.

"Now that our base is established," Queen began, "it is now time to begin insuring that we have the supplies to allow us to fight the Tripredicus Council. Optimus Primal and I have agreed to a two pronged strategy. Bomb will lead Terrorsaur, Spine, Quickstrike, and Jawbreaker to an old Predicon storage facility. You are to recover as much energon and, or, weaponry as possible."

"I'd actually prefer it if you kept all your Resistance members here for the time being," Rhinox spoke up, before Optimus could explain his part in 'Queen's' operation.

"What?!" Queen demanded, "You dare command my followers?!"

"No, it is merely that now with the equipment we've recently collected, I have the ability to find out what is preventing you and your followers from transforming," Rhinox explained with a sigh, "I would prefer to have them here so that I can perform basic scans on them and on you."

"How long will it take you to cure us?" Queen then demanded.

"That depends on what is actually blocking your ability to transform," Rhinox answered, "It could be as simple as an anti-virus, or it could be as complicated as reformatting you, giving you a new alternate form. But I need you and all your followers her so that I can get started."

"Fine," Queen sighed, "but who is going to guide my team to proper location?"

"I'll go," Cheetor volunteered, "I know my way pretty well around Cybertron and help out if there is any trouble."

"I can provide your 'team' with the necessary firepower as well," Tigerhawk added, "If that is alright with Optimus."

"It's alright with me," Optimus nodded and then coughed to try and regain the attention of the gathered transformers.

Once Optimus was sure he had their attention, he continued with his part of the mission to be assigned.

"While Queen's group goes to get energon, Maximals," Optimus spoke, "our goal is to try and gather whatever evidence we can on what the Tripredicus Council is planning and try to gather whatever information possible that might betray how strong they actually are."

"You mean, walk up to their door and ask, 'what are ya doin'?'" Rattrap asked, "Are you nuts?"

"You're not going to knock on the door, and you're to avoid getting into a fight as much as possible," Optimus answered with a sigh, "You, Blackarachnia, and Squeak are to sneak in, get what you can, and sneak out."

"Should be fun," Blackarachnia commented, "but we'll probably need some force to distract them. They've probably done the most to guard their own headquarters above all other things."

"Depthcharge, Silverbolt, Airazor, and Snowstalker will follow behind you as 'backup'" Optimus spoke, "If you get discovered, they'll respond and allow you to escape."

"I should have known you were tryin' ta kill me," Rattrap grumbled.

Optimus sighed and ignored Rattrap's complaints.

"The rest will continue the basic exploring and mapping of these caves or patrolling the tunnels for their tunneler drones," Optimus continued, "but remember that such patrols are not to go far from the entrance."

The others soon nodded.

**Storehouse, Later**

It took forever for the raiding group found the old Predicon storehouse that Queen wanted them to hit. The time that had been used in getting there did not sit well with the Predicons in the group.

"You little runt," Terrorsaur growled, sounding angry, "You said you knew your way around Cybertron!"

"I do," Cheetor answered with a weak smile, "but it's both dated and incomplete. It's from when I was a 'sparkling' and I never hung out in any Predicon parts of town."

Terrorsaur growled and was about to attack the transmetal two cheetah, when he felt a large hand restrain him. Terrorsaur looked back to see that it was Tigerhawk restraining him and that the other Predicons with them looked at least hesitant to attack the two Maximals.

"Your 'new' leader and her original followers need to be checked to see what the Tripredicus Council has done to prevent them from being able to transform to their alternate mode," Tigerhawk spoke in a firm voice, "And very few of Optimus's crew even have memories or have even been on Cybertron."

"And besides, Terrorsaur," Spine spoke up, "we may need them to beat what they got guarding their warehouse."

Terrorsaur then looked out from their position in an alley to look at the warehouse. It was part of a larger complex and there were no fences there, but the transmetal two pteranodon could see several tank drones pacing in front of the doors with at least three jet drones flying overhead.

"Yeah, it might be good to have you two along," Terrorsaur answered, "I'll deal with the jet drones. Tigerhawk, Cheetor, it would be appreciated if you could deal with their tank drones."

Cheetor and Tigerhawk nodded.

"What about the rest of us?" Quickstrike asked and then hesitantly added, "boss?"

"The rest of you are to rush into the warehouse and get the energon," Terrorsaur answered, "you are only to fight if you are directly attacked on the way in or out. Fighting isn't the main goal of this mission."

Quickstrike looked depressed and looked down.

"Fine," the Predicon fuzor sighed.

**Outside the Tripredicus Council Building**

The two Maximal teams meanwhile approached a lone black tower that stood out against several smaller defense towers that surrounded. They quickly climbed to the roof of a nearby building to get a better look at the structure and see if there was any way in.

"Man," Rattrap groaned, "that place has enough trainable automatic guns to slag half of Cybertron on its own. No way we can just walk past them."

Blackarachnia looked out at the tower defenses, and largely found Rattrap's assessment to be accurate. Each defense tower had at least two laser cannons that would normally be mounted on battle cruisers in space. There were also at least four smaller laser cannons mounted in various locations on each tower, and there was at least one sensor device on each tower as well. Because of walls connecting each tower, Blackarachnia couldn't be certain if there were any drones there as well.

"I'm sure we can find a way around," Blackarachnia commented, but then glanced at the other team crouching behind them, "or you guys could distract them."

"Distract them?" Airazor asked, slightly confused as their assignment was only to move in if Rattrap, Blackarachnia, and Squeak needed to be rescued, "what if you get into trouble?"

"You're all out here, and we'll be in there," Blackarachnia answered, "if we get in trouble, you wouldn't be able to help us. And right now, there is no way of getting in. If you draw their attention, we can sneak in while they're distracted. Once we're in, you can break off and find someplace 'safe' to wait for us to get out."

"I'll go with you, to help," Silverbolt was quick to offer.

"Sorry, bowser, but this is spy work," Blackarachnia replied, "not exactly something a knight is good at."

"Be careful, then," Silverbolt gave a heavy sigh.

"I try to be," Blackarachnia gave a confident smile.

"The real question, is how do we distract them?" Snowstalker questioned, "If we fire on them from here, all their guns will fire on this position. You won't be able to sneak in when they're all aimed at you."

"We'll have to move to a different spot to sneak in," Rattrap grumbled, "Probably one closer to the ground."

"And their exterior guns won't be much of an obstacle for long, if they're anything like the automated defenses Megatron had around the Darkside during the Beast Wars," Airazor commented, "I'd be more concerned with the possible drones or 'loyal' transformers they have behind that wall."

"Their drones aren't very strong," Depthcharge answered, "they can easily be dealt with. The best question is how many transformers will they have with them, and who effective are they."

"We still have to carry out the mission," Blackarachnia pointed out.

"Yeah," Depthcharge sighed, "You go and wait for our 'distraction'. You'll know when we've launched it."

Blackarachnia slowly nodded and then lead Rattrap and Squeak back down the flight of stairs they had come up. Depthcharge merely glanced back at the defenses in front of them.

"So, what's the plan?" Snowstalker asked.

"We need to draw them out and toward us," Depthcharge answered, "Getting rid of their guns will be the first task."

"I can do that," Airazor answered, "I can fly faster then the speed of sound. The guns won't survive the shockwave of the sound barrier breaking. You all might want to cover your audio sensors as I do so, though."

"And once their guns are destroyed, they'll have to come out and fight us," Silverbolt spoke.

Depthcharge nodded, "We won't stay here long, though. We're to gradually pull back, drawing their drones or transformers away from the area, letting Blackarachnia and her group get in."

The others nodded.

"I'd best get going," Airazor sighed, "I'll need to be in beast mode to achieve my top speed."

**Underground Base**

Optimus watched quietly as Rhinox conducted the tests needed to determine what was affect Queen and her followers. He was just as curious as Rhinox was, if not as scientifically skilled. Queen and her original resistance members remained relatively quiet through all the procedures that Rhinox performed. Most of them were basic diagnostic scans, but Rhinox also found it necessary to extract samples of mechfluid for closer analysis.

"Have you found anything so far?" Optimus asked as he came closer to his old friend.

"Nothing really worth reporting," Rhinox sighed, "the scans so far only indicate that they've got some kind of transformation-lock virus, but not which one and no specifics on how it works. So the scans only prove to us what they've told us so far."

"And you think taking our mechfluid will clarify this?" Queen questioned as she approached the makeshift table from the other side.

"It should," Rhinox answered, "It'll at least allow me to get a closer look at what has actually prevented your ability to switch between your robot and alternate modes. Once we know that, we can then take the proper steps to reverse the effects of the virus and you'll be able to affect your own internal repairs for any small injuries."

Rhinox then turned to the tubes of mechfluid that had been gathered and prepared to place them in on of the makeshift computers that they had captured to continue the analysis. The process took a fair amount of time as he equipment, being assembled in a manner that much of the equipment had not been designed to deal with, and was connected to other computers that were not entirely compatible. The result of this took longer then what was normal.

After a few moments, the computer began to process the results of the tests on the mechfluid that had been collected. When Rhinox looked at it, he was surprised beyond all belief as to what it was.

"What?" Queen demanded, "What is it?"

"It's as I feared," Rhinox sighed, "The Tripredicus Council has used a variant of the trans-lock 9000 virus."

"Trans-lock 9000?" Queen asked.

"A specialized virus created toward the end of the Great War," Rhinox answered, "in which the virus infects a transformers bodily systems and gets them to 'digest' either the alternate form or the robot form, depending on which one the transformer is in when infected. With all the gears and mechanisms that make transforming possible gone, the victim is looked in the form they were in. Thankfully, the Great War was practically over when it was developed, and thus played no major role."

"Can it be cured?" Queen questioned.

"Nothing short of a full reformatting, and the new form would be better suited to be an 'beast' mode rather then a vehicle mode, given that the trans-lock 9000 virus also does damage to vehicles and is far more likely to infect a vehicle rather then an animal mode."

"How can you be sure?" Optimus asked.

"Runner, Repair, and Wired are all Maximals," Rhinox explained, "from what I've been able to see through the scans and tests on their mechfluid, they contracted the virus through either a gas or through some direct beam. Queen, Grease, and Bomb's mechfluid seems to indicate that the virus was mixed in with whatever energon they've consumed. And there's likely to still be trans-lock 9000 still in the atmosphere as well."

"Then how come we haven't shown signs of infection?" Optimus asked, "and how come none of those serving the Tripredicus Council have shown no sign of infection?"

"I don't really know for sure," Rhinox sighed, "maybe the fact that we have beast modes instead of vehicle modes provides us with some defense. I'd need to run more tests to be certain. And those serving the Tripredicus Council have likely been vaccinated or given a new form with the vaccine in it."

"Do we have the equipment needed to reformat them?" Optimus asked.

Rhinox shook his head, "We'll need scanners, and given our best guesses at the moment, DNA scanners specifically, and animal DNA."

"We'd have to go to Earth to get that!" Queen gasped.

"Possibly," was all Rhinox could sigh back.

**Warehouse**

Two tank drones patrolling outside a warehouse exploded as a large missile came out of an ally and exploded between the two drones. The remaining drones then turned to face the alley as Tigerhawk and Cheetor came rushing out of it. Terrorsaur flew out above them to challenge the flying jet drones. The tank drones turned to fire, but Cheetor was quick to open up with his own blaster while Tigerhawk flew in beast mode near the ground blasting the tank drones with his chain guns. These drones blew up rapidly, almost before they could even fire a shot.

Once the tank drones appeared to be clear, Quickstrike, Jawbreaker, and Spine then rushed out to rush for the warehouse and its contents. Above them, Terrorsaur rushed forward, slashing two jet drones with his claws and transforming to his robot mode soon afterward. He destroyed that drone with his optics lasers.

"This was barely worth my time," Terrorsaur grumbled expecting a greater fight out of the drones.

He was hit in the back by two missiles which sent him tumbling out of the air. As he spiraled toward the ground he heard a voice speak to him.

"I'm sorry I didn't arrive fast enough, then," the voice taunted him.

Terrorsaur managed to regain control of his flight path and turned toward where the voice had come from. He was then shocked by what he saw. Covered in red, white, and blue paint was a transformer who's vehicle mode had to be an F-15 fighter jet from earth.

"Starscream?! But he died years ago! Centuries even!" Terrorsaur gasped.

"My body, yes, my spark, NO!" Starscream answered, "and now the Tripredicus Council has given me the opportunity to get revenge on Optimus Primal and Blackarachnia for defeating me in the Beast Wars!"

"They aren't here," Terrorsaur answered, no really caring if this really was Starscream or not, "so you'll have to be destroyed by me."

Terrorsaur then fired his lasers at the recreated Decepticon, but Starscream managed to avoid taking a hit and fired his own lasers back. Terrorsaur only just managed to avoid taking a direct hit. That made him growl slightly. From what he had overheard from the Maximals and their assessments of their new enemy, even the transformers on the Tripredicus Council's side were not effective, but so far, clone or not, this Starscream had brought him to straight up draw. He was sure it would be tough to win.

**Tripredicus Council Chambers**

General Ramhorn was knocked off his feet when a great 'boom' shook the tower that he and the other Tripredicus Council members used. He was then startled by the computers in the tower then piped to life through the main loudspeakers.

"Attention, Maximal energy signature detected," spoke the automated loudspeakers.

General Ramhorn rushed to the closest window and looked out to see a peregrine falcon transformer in beast mode fly off in the distance. He also noticed that nearly all the guns on the defense towers had been destroyed by what appeared to be a shockwave of sound. He then heard the sounds of explosions coming from the other direction, and he quickly rushed down the hallway to get to another window. He ran into General Seaclamp when he arrived.

"We're under attack!" Seaclamp exclaimed, partially reporting the situation.

"And Starscream has been sent to protect the warehouses," Ramhorn grumbled as he looked out and watched a group of Maximals fire at the defense towers and walls, as if they were trying to blast a hole to charge through.

"Come on," Seaclamp urged, "we have to organize a counter attack, even if wee have to lead it ourselves."

Outside, Depthcharge watched as he and his group fired on the defense towers and walls, hoping their fire would open a path for Rattrap's group to get through. Airazor returned to their position while they were firing.

"They're starting to send drones out," Airazor commented, "We'll know for certain if we've really diverted all their attention from the others."

They then looked down to see three fairly large transformers leading a horde of drones behind them. The transformers were unfamiliar too them, but considering that each was just as large as Optimus was, they had to be fearsome.

"I'd say we have their attention," Silverbolt commented as he fired some feather missiles at the drones behind the three leading transformers, "are we to pull back now that they're coming?"

"We wait until they actually start firing," Depthcharge answered, "I'll carry Snowstalker, and we'll withdraw to the ground about a block away. We have to make it look like they're actually winning the fight."

They fired another series of rounds down on the drones, which destroyed several of them. By that time, however, the three leading transformers had gotten everything organized to fire on their position, and the group was soon taking fire as well.

"Time to go!" Snowstalker said urgently as they began pulling back.

Airazor provided enough covering fire to allow them to leave the rooftop.

"I'd think that some of the reports we received were inaccurate!" General Cicadacon exclaimed as they watched the visible Maximals pull back, "they ran at the first sign of a counter attack."

"They've been fighting Megatron before they came here," General Seaclamp commented, "considering the fools he recruited when he went rogue, I highly doubt they even expected a fight from us. Let us advance. Perhaps they will lead us to their new base."

Meanwhile, Rattrap peaked around a corner to watch the three large transformers lead at least a regiment of drones after Depthcharge's decoy group.

"Man, those guys are big," Rattrap commented, "Hate to meet them in a dark alley."

"I doubt they're agents of the Tripredicus Council, or at least, not low ranking agents," Blackarachnia commented, "At that size, they have to be individually powerful, and Predicons of that size do not take to being followers. They're either leaders or rogues. Without a piece of Rampage's spark, Megatron could have never controlled him."

"Sister, loyalty ain't exactly a Predicon virtue," Rattrap answered back, "Most of the ones that didn't plot against Megs only did so because they were scared of him."

"That's sorta my point," Blackarachnia sighed, "If those guys aren't the Tripredicus Council members themselves, they're likely either in the position Rampage was in or plotting on their own."

"I don't mean to but in, but they've gone," Squeak spoke up, "we can get in now."

The two then looked to see that the drones and three massive transformers were in fact gone. Blackarachnia was quick to move up the side of the wall, and left cyberweblines for Rattrap and Squeak to climb up. They found no sign of anyone guarding the now abandoned tower.

**Warehouse District**

It took a fair while, but eventually Quickstrike, Spine, and Jawbreaker came running out of the warehouse carrying crates full of energon cubes. Outside, Tigerhawk and Cheetor patiently stood guard, blasting any tank drone that dared approach, which now appeared to have been completely destroyed.

"Was there any trouble in there?" Tigerhawk asked.

"No," Spine answered simply and then carried on with the crate he was carrying.

Tigerhawk then glanced up as the sounds of battle between Terrorsaur and Starscream grew louder.

"Something wrong?" Cheetor asked.

"Something could be," Tigerhawk answered, "can you insure the others get to safety?"

Cheetor then glanced upward toward the sounds of battle above them.

"He said he wanted to deal with the jet drones himself," Cheetor told the transmetal two fuzor, "I'm sure he wouldn't get himself into a fight he can't win. He can't be that stupid."

"That is not the sound of an easy battle, little cat," Tigerhawk answered, "It has to be something more dangerous."

Above them, Terrorsaur was doing all he could, just to maintain a stalemate. Whoever this new Starscream was, he was at least as skilled as his likely namesake was. His lasers were not that powerful, but his missiles did pack a powerful punch, and despite his transmetal two armor, Terrorsaur was careful not to let those missiles hit him twice. He fired a wide spread of his own lasers at the other transformer in front of him. Starscream dodged and fired his missiles back.

Terrorsaur dodged the missiles, but ended up getting hit by Starscream's lasers, knocking him back a bit.

"Come on," Starscream taunted, "I'd been told you guys were wiping up the floor with the Council's drones. I was expecting more of a challenge."

Terrorsaur glanced down to see that his comrades escaping with the crates of energon.

"You've failed to stop us from getting the energon," Terrorsaur pointed out.

"Ah, but that wasn't my mission," Starscream smiled, "my mission was to destroy resistance fighters, and the Council will reward me for destroying a flyer."

Starscream was unable to continue as he was suddenly hit by several gatling gun bullets that pushed him back. He turned to see a large transmetal two fuzor approaching, and that he had just fired a missile that was headed directly for him. He had no time to dodge the incoming missile, and the resulting explosion knocked him off of the battlefield, and he landed on a road almost a mile away.

Terrorsaur, meanwhile, turned to face Tigerhawk as he approached him.

"I wanted you to guard against drones," Terrorsaur growled.

"The drones are all gone, and judging by the sounds I heard, you were in need of help," Tigerhawk spoke back.

Terrorsaur looked in the direction in which Tigerhawk had sent Starscream flying.

"Well," Terrorsaur admitted, "you did get rid of him."

"Who was that?" Tigerhawk asked.

"Said he was Starscream, and looked like the Great War Decepticon, too, but not as big," Terrorsaur answered.

"So he wasn't destroyed," Tigerhawk groaned.

"Huh?" Terrorsaur questioned.

"All questions will be answered later," Tigerhawk told him, "meanwhile, the others have left. We'd best do the same."

**Tripredicus Council Tower**

The entire tower was empty as Rattrap, Blackarachnia, and Squeak made their way in. There was virtually no sign of any security.

"What do we check for first?" Squeak asked.

"Computer nerve centers," Rattrap answered, "any plans they have layin' around are gonna be there."

"Any possible weapons caches might also be a good target," Blackarachnia added, "might help explain how largely poorly armed drones with sparse transformer support took over all of Cybertron."

They kept going for a while through the tower, going up each floor one at a time. They found no weapons caches, but Squeak did see several rooms that looked medical experiment labs as they moved. Eventually they came to the top floor, which was the last hope for any such information. They found themselves in a long hallway with a row of doors on either side leading to a window that appeared to look out over the battle scene they had left earlier.

"Squeak, go stand by that window," Blackarachnia ordered, "let us know if you see any sign of the drones coming back."

Squeak glanced at Rattrap who nodded and then moved toward the window. Blackarachnia and Rattrap, meanwhile, began to check the doors in the hallway. The first two doors lead to what appeared to be individual quarters, and the third was a 'dining' area, stocked with energon cubes. The fourth was a large circular conference room with a large round table. There appeared to be various computer and holographic devices as part of the table and lead to doors on the other end.

"I'll check in here," Blackarachnia spoke, "You keep the other rooms."

Rattrap sighed and kept going. The sixth door was another quarters room, but the seventh door and final one in the hallway was a door to a computer intelligence room and that made the transmetal rat smile.

"Score," Rattrap smiled.

Squeak meanwhile remained quiet at her guard post at the window. She watched patiently while Rattrap and Blackarachnia searched for what would help them gain more knowledge about what the Tripredicus Council had planned for Cybertron. After about ten minutes of watching, Squeak noticed movement approaching the damaged walls outside the tower. She then set about gathering the others.

Outside, General Ramhorn sighed heavily as they made their way to the tower. They had lost more then seventy percent of their drones, and they themselves had taken some damage in pursuing the Maximals, but they were successful in driving them off. It still seemed like a wasteful defense.

"That was futile," General Ramhorn groaned, "they got away."

"At least we did some damage to the flyer and the cat," General Cicadacon spoke up, sounding optimistic, "that'll prove they can't just wantonly attack us."

"Yes, but the one that was made up of two animals and the upgraded one suffered little if any damage," General Seaclamp grumbled, "and we lost a large number of drones just driving them off."

They then made their way into their tower while the drones with them took up defensive positions. The three council members rode their elevator up to the top floor and then moved to their main situation room.

"We'd best contact Starscream, see how he faired," General Cicadacon spoke and then pressed a button.

What popped up was a holographic image of Blackarachnia's head. The image was smiling.

"Congratulations, your computer network has been infected by the Blackarachnia Computer Virus," the computer spoke.

Everything in the room then went dark.

**Underground**

"That's impossible," Queen gasped, "Starscream was destroyed in the Great War!"

"His body was, but his spark seemed to be almost immune to 'death'," Optimus sighed, "His spark showed up in the Beast Wars and possessed Waspinator."

"Waspinator hate old Jet-bot!" Waspinator buzzed, remembering the fact that he had been blown to bits at the end of Starscream's scheme in the Beast Wars.

"His weapons were strong enough to be the original Starscream," Terrorsaur grumbled.

"And was partially why the Maximal elders allowed the creation of protoform X, who was also a thorn in our side during the Beast Wars," Optimus sighed.

"So how do we beat him for good?" Queen questioned.

"I had to ram a shard of raw energon into X to destroy him," Depthcharge spoke up, "but I doubt there is anything like that here."

"We might be able to capture him though," Tigerhawk added, "although that might be somewhat tough."

Optimus nodded, "All of that can be sorted out and planned later. In the meantime, what are the results of our other mission?"

"We destroyed most of the drones they sent out at us, and did some damage to three large transformers leading the drones," Silverbolt reported, "which allowed Blackarachnia, Rattrap, and Squeak to get into the main tower that the they had."

"Did you find anything interesting?" Optimus asked, turning to Rattrap and Blackarachnia.

Rattrap nodded, "We might finally have the answers we've been looking for, right here."

The transmetal rat then held up a series of data disks. Optimus took them and put the first on in the makeshift computer panel that had been assembled. A holographic image of General Seaclamp then appeared above the panel's holo-projector.

"Megatron's actions have opened up a window of opportunity for Plan Omega," Seaclamp's image spoke, "The Maximal elders have weakened their space fleet in the Cybertron sector to search the missing Axalon, and with them, half of their ground troops have also been sent on this rescue mission."

They all gathered around the image to watch the information, apparently a private journal, be presented.

"The detection of a transwarp shockwave reinforced this opportunity," the image continued, "we ordered three ships of the Predicon Alliance to act as though they had gone rogue with Megatron and destroyed the Maximal detection satellites that they would have needed to detect the transwarp wave."

The Maximals from the Beast Wars looked on, remembering why there was a transwarp wave and what the consequences of it were.

"While the Maximal elders focused on their search for Optimus Primal and after our ruse with their satellites, with hunting the 'rogues' we were now ready to begin Operation Omega," the image continued, "We ordered the construction of three million tank drones, two million jet drones, and began notifying loyal Predicons throughout Cybertron that the hour of glory had arrived."

The image then vanished and the disk automatically ejected. Optimus placed it on top of the computer and put the next data disk in. It then portrayed the image of General Ramhorn.

"The first Phase of Operation Omega has proceeded well," the image began, "the Maximal elders, distracted by other matters never saw our attack coming and their council chambers was easily overrun, and all guarding Maximals were either destroyed or damaged. The Maximal Elders are no more."

Runner, Repair, and Wired looked down with a heavy sigh. The Predicons had done more then assault the elder's council chambers, but that was apparently the main goal.

"With control of Cybertron firmly in Predicon hands, we then began work to insure its control by the Tripredicus Council for all time," the image continued, "trans-lock 9000 gas was dropped on Maximal settlements while separate trans-lock 9000 vials were prepared to be injected into energon cubes. With that all transformers not of our origins will be weakened and ready for phase two."

Queen shared a short glance with other members of her resistance movement, now knowing why she couldn't take her alternate mode.

"We have also begun construction of Omega One in orbit around Cybertron," the image continued, "It should be complete in one year and will serve well for our final victory."

The image then vanished. Once again, Optimus replaced the disks. This time, the image was of General Cicadacon.

"Phase two has begun," the image spoke, "we have begun capturing Maximals that survived the take over and have extracted their sparks, and have them secured in our facility on Cybertron's moon. We have also begun gathering up Predicons not sharing our origins and have been sending their sparks to the same location."

That raised several gasps of horror from all present.

"Progress on Omega One continues as scheduled, and will be able to secure ultimate power, soon, not even this growing resistance will be able to stand in the way of the Tripredicus Council," the image finished.

The image then went out again.

"They're stealing sparks!" Cheetor exclaimed, "That's low, really low."

"At least they're not killing them," Silverbolt commented, "we can still save them."

"If we can get a ship to the moon," Queen commented.

"What about this thing about 'origins' that they were talking about?" Packadex asked.

"The origins of the Tripredicus Council," Queen answered, "They're descendents of Unicron, and since the Predicon faction was in complete disarray when the Decepticons lost the Great War and became the Predicons, they were easily able to take over the faction. Apparently, they don't want any Maximal or Predicon that doesn't share their origins around."

"Then why haven't they destroyed the sparks they've already taken?" Rapther questioned, "Even if they transfer them to another body, they'll still be either a Maximal or a Predicon."

"That information can be explained in these disks," Blackarachnia spoke up and handed Optimus another set of disks, "they are largely plans. Omega One, appears to be a large drone, but with a power scale off the charts, and according to the disks, should be about the size of a moon, which I assume is the reason why it'll take them a year to finish."

"A moon sized drone?" Optimus asked, "with great power? You wouldn't think they're trying to recreate Unicron do you?"

"It wouldn't surprise me, considering some of the things that Tarantulus did during the Beast Wars," Blackarachnia answered, "and that isn't all. They've been working on some sort of semi-mystical link with both the Oracle and the Matrix and are building it in 'Omega One', probably some effort to get Unicron's spark back."

"That must be why they've been collecting the sparks," Rhinox commented, "Unicron's spark is powerful, and it's not unheard of for a transformer to make direct contact with the Matrix or the Oracle. They likely intend to exchange the live sparks they've collected for Unicron's dead spark, turning the Omega One drone into a new Unicron."

Optimus looked at his group and then at Queen and her resistance fighters and gave a heavy sigh.

"Well that's just prime," Optimus then spoke.

**The End…**


End file.
